Coach Kobe? Lakers' Bryant: 'I just have no interest' in coaching
by Fox Sports

Find a somewhat peaceful location -- it might be difficult during the workday, but that's fine -- and close your eyes. Try to imagine something. Try to imagine, in fact, Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant as a coach. Hear the yelling in your mind. Envision the players driven to tears. Feel the tension break when Bryant the coach snaps a computer tablet in half on the bench.

Because all of that imagining is apparently the closest the NBA will ever get to having Bryant as a coach on the sidelines. The future Hall of Famer is in China on tour, and he took part in a Q&A with Chinese social media site Weibo while overseas. And in response to a question about potentially coaching in the future, Bryant was clear (translation courtesy of Lakers Nation): "Coaching isn’t for me. I just have no interest in doing it."

Kobe Bryant was in China for the Nike RISE Campaign and held a Q&A session. The five-time champion spoke on former and present teammates, the upcoming season, and more. Kobe also launched his official China website, which you can take a look at here.

Should Kobe Bryant Stay or Should He Go?
by Anthony Bertacchi - cbslocal.com

At some point a player accepts retirement. At a certain point his or her body isn’t what it used to be anymore. Maybe they didn’t have the lift on their jumper anymore. Maybe their defensive skills have eroded to the point of almost being nonexistent or maybe their knees hurt so much that moving fast isn’t as easy as it used to be. Whatever the case is, they aren’t the same player and they have to leave the game.

This brings me to the Los Angeles Lakers. More specifically, this brings me to Kobe Bryant and the conundrum of how much longer the Lakers should continue to pay him.

Two years ago the Lakers gave Kobe $48.5 million contract over two years. Was he worth it? Well, that depends what you want to define as “worth it.” On one hand he’s a Laker icon who has more rings than Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain combined. On the other hand he’s an aging shooter who, according to advanced stats, is actually hurting the team offensively.

That massive contract ends after this season and, if the Lakers had it their way, Kobe retires and is eulogized in Laker lore for years to come. They can’t have many more losing season and continue to matter in a market like Los Angeles.

What once was the marquee organization of the NBA is now riding shotgun with the New York Knicks (another team far removed from its past glory) to see what fan base will lose all hope in humanity first.

Prior to the last three seasons, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant had been relatively healthy throughout his career. There were some nagging injuries here and there, but for the most part, Kobe had avoided major injuries that would require months of rehab and recovery.

Now Kobe has dealt with a season-ending injury in each of the last three seasons and entering his 20th year in the NBA, the end of his career is approaching. Even though it has been tough, Kobe told Chinese newspaper Sina that the injuries have given him perspective:

Since the departure of Phil Jackson and the Triangle offense, the Lakers as a whole have fallen on tough times. The irony lies in the fact that the Lakers fired Mike Brown, a Princeton Offense connoisseur, only to hire Byron Scott, who possesses similar coaching values.

Though you have probably heard the term “Princeton Offense” tossed around on Lakers’ broadcasts before, I doubt even the most avid of fans know exactly what it entails. Broken down to it’s simplest form, the Princeton is a motion offense that is relatively basic compared to say the Triangle which seems to have an infinite number of options.

If run correctly the Princeton yields great results — Jason Kidd proved this with Byron Scott as his coach years ago on the Nets — so what’s wrong with the Lakers’ version of it?

Once Kobe Bryant officially retires from the NBA, the future Hall of Famer will be considered one of the best players to ever play the game. Bryant will leave behind a legacy that’ll be tough to match for players that follow in his footsteps in the years to come.

The Los Angeles Lakers superstar recently talked about being fortunate enough to soak up the knowledge from NBA legends Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan throughout his career in order to become the player he is today. Bryant claims to have learned a lot from his “muses” during a career that has spanned almost two decades, via Sina:

The Los Angeles Lakers went into the NBA off-season still licking their wounds from the worst campaign in team history. Injuries, a lack of talent, questionable on-court schemes, and more injuries had made the 2014-15 season a gauntlet of misery. Still, the off-season brought with it a modicum of hope, as it tends to do. After all, anything can happen when every team in the league has their record reset to 0-0. It wouldn’t be easy, but the next step in the rebuilding process was about to unfold.

Their massive, nervous fan base understood what they were up against in the brutal Western Conference, but still, this is the Lakers. The purple and gold have always found a way to get it done, and the off-season was to be the beginning of their rebirth.

Can D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson Be Lakers' Backcourt of the Future?
by Josh Martin - bleacherreport.com

The Los Angeles Lakers, with D'Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson at the backcourt controls, didn't have to wait long for their first bout with the boo birds. After the first quarter of their third game at the Las Vegas Summer League, Russell and Clarkson (and the rest of their teammates) got an earful from a house packed with Lakers partisans.

Russell, a supposed ace passer, had turned the ball over twice. Clarkson, an All-Rookie first-teamer known for getting to the cup, settled for jump shots—four without a make. By the end of the afternoon, Russell had tracked up eight turnovers against a single assist, Clarkson had nailed just three of this 14 field-goal attempts and the Lakers had slumped away with a 10-point loss to the New York Knicks.

It was an inauspicious showing amid an altogether unsatisfactory stint at summer league for the Lakers' presumptive backcourt of the future. But as poorly as that pair played at times in Sin City, those who observed the most rudimentary glimpses of what's to come in L.A. had (mostly) positive things to say about Russell and Clarkson.

"I think they'll fit well together," said one scout in attendance who works for an independent scouting service. "They can both shoot, pass and dribble. They can play both positions and split duties. They just need time to develop."